Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, June 13, 1995                   TAG: 9506140102
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A-4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

CYBERSPEECH

Something other than uninformed questions, irrelevant comments or the unenlightening insults lobbed back and forth in flame wars, that is. (Those jolly times when folks heap abuse on other computer chat-line users in the apparent belief that strongly worded insults are a suitable substitute for well-reasoned argument. Mild-mannered foes not easily persuaded can at least - POW! - be silenced.)

There is something curious, sometimes useful and occasionally scary about tapping into the electronic consciousness of computer users pouring out their thoughts and feelings about events that shake and shape the nation, not to mention myriad, incredibly arcane subjects, each with its obsessed enthusiasts. In the jumble of perceptions and opinions that spring from different individual experiences, wisdom sometimes can be found. And it's just plain interesting to know what people are thinking.

Such chatter is not the problem.

What is a problem, longtime Internet users complain, is the rising volume of contributions from the ill- or misinformed to on-line discussion groups that require scientific or technical expertise. Just about everybody, it seems, thinks he is an expert.

These groups used to be limited to people who actually knew what they were talking about, back when only a privileged few had PCs. Since the 1970s, researchers in government, industry and academia have used electronic bulletin boards for the immediate exchange of new information - bulletin boards now swamped with garbage they must wade through if they want to find anything beneficial.

Some experts who once were useful contributors have abandoned them altogether, The Wall Street Journal reports, and have gone back to attending conferences or (gasp) subscribing to print publications to find out what's new in their disciplines.

The information revolution should, indeed, be open to all. To those who aren't looking for access to information so much as access to a soapbox, we say that's fine - for political debate. No one has ever claimed you have to actually know anything to engage in that. Silence might be in order for the casual user, though, when the topic is microbiology.